Jim Turner

About

Jim’s work is focused on creating textured surfaces unique to the ceramic process.

This series of work explores the use of paper clay to create pieces which seem familiar but are never quite resolved in the observer’s eye. So objects are being constructed from paper clay sheets which in older work were only being used for ceramic “decoration”. Manipulating the paper clay from an extremely wet state gives immediacy to the surfaces created. They are then fired to 1300c subjecting them to chance of the firing process. Some pieces are fired again at a lower temperature with lustres.

As for his inspiration, he says “I don’t know exactly why I do what I do; its innate, something I have to do, my internal dialogue with my environment. I work with clay because from an early age, the studio pottery was the surroundings in which I was brought up. My work is informed by the landscapes and other experiences where I find myself.”

His influences are as diverse as the Peninsula formation of Sheep’s Head, to the anonymous Minoan potters of Crete, through to the Futurists, Constructionists and the engineering feats of Frei Otto. Fractual architecture of Frank Gehry and sailing experiences are diverse nuggets of information in the subconscious. All these and more might direct how he manipulates the materials, but the clay itself can be the source of inspiration.